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tv   Americas Newsroom  FOX News  September 21, 2012 6:00am-8:00am PDT

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>> she bosses me around at the house and i boss her around out here. >> gretchen: it sounds like it works out. we have fans from south dakota down here. [ cheers and applause ] >> gretchen: iowa! where did you say? iowa. have a from weekend, everyone. >> brian: bye. good job, josh. martha: we kick things off here with a fox news alert. we have brand new pictures from the latest anti-american protests going on around the globe as pakistan declares a new national holiday in honor of the prophet muhammad. this is the scene in islamabad as that played out. angry mobs as you can see chanting. they were setting fires. fears this situation could get worse. good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum here in "america's newsroom"
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gregg: i'm gregg jarrett. bill is on assignment. martha: in peshawar mobs ransacking and torching a movie theater before police opened fire on the crowds. reports are that one person was killed. rick leventhal is in the region reporting live from jerusalem. rick, let's start with the latest from pakistan. >> reporter: martha, pakistani government declared love for the prophet today and encouraged people to protest peacefully. that was ignored. violence is rupted among many cities including karachi and peshawar where hundreds of demonstrators ransacked two movie theaters and setting them on fire clashing with police who tried to break up the crowd. the police opened fire hitting a van from a pakistani police station killing the driver. a number of police officers were also hurt in these clashes. the pakistani government
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actually shut down mobile cell service in 15 cities across the country today to try to prevent militants from using phones to set off bombs. apparently that, wooed farce we know, martha. martha: big concerns for the u.s. in this region and we understand there are new precautions that are being taken. what does that mean exactly, rick? >> reporter: well a number of embassies have shut down or strengthened their securities. u.s. embassies and french embass sizs across the region. we learned from our team in cairo there is protest outside the french embassy. egyptian soldiers are there to provide security. no word on other violence there. other embassies shut down including jakarta. we have video from beirut where thousands of people filled the streets. some carrying signs america equals terror and america does not equal freedom with men on one side, women on
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the other. this march was in fact peaceful. we have one other incident to tell you about. it happened today at the border, the southern border of israel that it shares with gaza and egypt. there was a shooting down there, an attack on israeli soldiers who were patrolling that border. apparently militants using automatic weapons andexplosivese israeli soldier, wounded two others. at least one of the attackers was killed. we have no information that this was related to the ongoing protests around the world. martha: so many tensions erupting in so many different areas. rick leventhal in jerusalem. >> reporter: sure. gregg: there was also some pretty ugly scenes in bangladesh. take a look. [shouting] protesters torching the american flag and also burning a makeshift coffin draped in our flag, carrying in effigy of president obama. a french flag also getting the same treatment. a protest of a publication of the caricatures of the
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prophet muhammad. martha: president obama and secretary of state hillary clinton are now being featured in a tv ad in pakistan that denounces the anti-islam movie that contributed to some of this violence. watch. >> since our founding the united states has been a nation that respects all faiths. we reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. martha: that is one of the ads that is being played there. we'll have more on that ad, all of that coming up a little bit later in the show. gregg: now to the ongoing investigation into the deadly attack at the u.s. consulate in libya and new reports of serious security lapses and misjudgements that may have made this tragedy a whole lot worse than it neated to be and one of the big questions right now, why u.s. officials ordered extra security in cairo but overlooked a possibility of trouble at other diplomatic posts and allowed the u.s. ambassador
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in libya to be mostly unprotected? the deputy secretary of state remembering ambassador stevens and other americans killed at a memorial service in libya. >> this is a hard moment, for all of us. it is a moment of shared loss, and it is a moment of shared hope and shared responsibility. we have lost four wonderful colleagues. we have lost a brilliant ambassador, full of courage and skill and passionate determination to help libyans. gregg: greg palkot joins me by telephone in tripoli. we understand, greg, the fbi is still there on the ground. what is the latest you're hearing? >> reporter: that's right, gregg. we spoke with an official that fbi agent remain in tripoli. we don't have any confirmation that they have yet to reach the scene of the killing that killed
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ambassador stevens and others in ben dwauz gazi. it is not especially safe. but there are worry that is the crime scene 10 days later could be contaminated. a marine anti-terror fast response team remains in tripoli as well. the embassy is well-guarded amid other questions being raised the night of the killing u.s. military teams were not sent in fast enough and questions about inadequate security at the consulate and maybe not enough attention paid to other attacks happening in benghazi over the past couple months. we've been hearing in our time on the ground here, at least to some degree, the militants, militia very much in charge in benghazi. gregg? gregg: we're hearing there is a protest and counter protest in libya. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: interesting stuff. protests planned in benghazi a big change from others we're seeing around the world in favor of the u.s. or at least honoring the late u.s. ambassador and other americans.
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but the broader message from the citizens there that the government based here in tripoli needs to do more to crack down on militant groups in benghazi. the problem is, another protest, gregg, is planned at the same place, at the same time by one of those militant groups. an outfit of ansar al-sharia suspected having links to the killing. they said they are innocent. they will be saying that today, maybe in a forceful day. we'll be monitoring it all. back to you. gregg: greg palkot in tripoli. greg, thanks. martha: the white house is doing a complete reversal on the characterization of the attack in libya. the administration for a solid week said that the attack was spontaneous, that it was not preplanned or premeditate. now jay carney saying this. >> it is i think self-evident that what happened in benghazi was a terrorist attack. our embassy was attacked violently as a result of a
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four and the result was four deaths of american officials. so again, that's self-evident. martha: a bit muted. that was on the air force one gaggle yesterday. but the president had a very different statement during an appearance at a town hall yesterday. doug mckelway is live. critics say the evolution of the administration's responses this week suggest there is some real confusion in how they are presenting this. >> reporter: yeah, martha. some say confusion. others say obfuscation. what could be more damaging the administration's foreign policy so-called cairo doctrine that the president announced at his administration to have an attack or attacks on your embassies in some of the most dangerous on of the world on the anniversary of 9/11. keep in mind in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the embassy in benghazi the administration says there was no actionable information. that the movie was.
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there was very strong circumstantial evidence of a terrorist attack from the very get-go. that the administration tip-toed all week long around that phrase, terrorist attack. we saw that in exchange with state department spokesman victoria nuland and our james rosen on monday. yesterday members of the senate intelligence committee were briefed by secretary clinton. bob corker came from the meeting that was the most useless, worthless briefing i have attended for a long time. that from a senator who is not prone to overstatement, martha. martha: that's true. the president addressed libya really at this univision town hall yesterday. how did that go? >> reporter: that was some of the toughest questioning that the president has faced all campaigns season long. here was his response to the attacks in libya. >> what we've seen over the last week, week and a half, is something that actually we've seen in the past where there is an offensive video
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or cartoon directed at the prophet muhammad and this is obviously something that, then is used as an excuse by some to carry out inexcusable violent acts, directed at westerners or americans and my number one priority is always to keep our diplomats safe and to keep our embassies safe. >> reporter: some are infering from that that the administration again pointing to the film, meanwhile the fbi continues their investigation. martha? martha: that question was pretty district. it was about whether or not we had enough security on the ground to protect those in benghazi and that in cairo as well. doug, thank you very much. more on that whole story coming up later in the hour. gregg: a lot is happening today. we are just getting started. more on the white house about-face on the situation in libya. why it took so long for the administration to finally admit this was indeed an act of terror.
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martha: more on the lawmakers lashing out over the intelligence that they are getting from the white house. >> i'm stunned that they thought that it was some kind of spontaneous demonstration. martha: we're going to talk to the chairman of the house armed services committee who was at that briefing yesterday that you're hearing so much about. gregg: a new report that the number of americans on food stamps has gone up significantly after washington lifted a key requirement. details ahead.
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for only $15 a month. [ dog barking ] her dream -- to be the area's hottest interior design office. [ children laughing ] right now, she just dreams of an office. get a free trial at constantcontact.com. gregg: well the sparks were flying from the very beginning of the first televised debate between the two candidates in the massachusetts senate race. incumbent republican senator scott brown questioning democratic challenger elizabeth warren's claims of native-american heritage saying she checked the box to gain an unfair advantage in her career. >> i don't know and neither do the viewers know whether
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in fact she got ahead as a result of that checking of the box. but the only way that we'll be able to find that out is to have her release her personnel records. have harvard release their personnel records to make sure she did not have an advantage that others were entitled to. >> when i was growing up these are the stories i knew about my heritage. i believed my mother and my father and my aunts and my uncles and i never asked anybody for any documentation. i don't know any kid who did. i never iced it. never used it for getting into college. never used it for getting into law school. the people who hired me for my jobs all made clear they didn't even know about until long after i was hired. gregg: the polls show a very close race for the senate seat. it is already the most expensive campaign in massachusetts political history. martha: well the white house's portrayal of the deadly libya attack is now completely changing, from a quote, spontaneous
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assault we heard about from susan rise on all the sunday shows last weekend to now what they're calling self-evident terror attack. here is what the obama administration was saying leading up to that reversal. watch some of this. >> the best information and the best assessment we have today is that in fact this was not a preplanned, premeditated attack. that what happened initially was there was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in cairo, as a consequence of the video. >> we saw no evidence to back up claims by others that this was a preplanned or premeditated attack. that it was, we saw evidence that it was sparked by the reaction to this video. martha: what's going on here? mary katharine ham is the editor-at-large at hotair.com and a fox news contributor. juan williams is a fox news political analyst. welcome to you both. good to see you this morning. >> good morning. martha: juan, let me start
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with you. what is going on here? >> sounds to me their position is evolving as they appear to learn more. i'm kind of curious they say initially there was no evidence it was premeditated or preplanned. it occurred on september 11th could make you think, hey it could be and al qaeda connection they're now investigating. i don't know at this point there is anything more here than language. when they say it is obviously a terrorist attack that is advance for them because the obama administration has been very reluctant to call anything terrorist. as you know, they have been using this manmade disaster euphemism that i find so crazy. martha: on the right-hand side of the screen we were showing the video believed to be from the night outside of that compound in benghazi. you can see rpg's in this video. just a few people are out there in the street. it is believed they may be the actual perpetrators and people who went in there and
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killed chris stevens and i-t professional and our two former navy seals in that brute at that attack. there is picture of them. it goes to them in terms of what happened and what we've been told. mary katherine, what is your interpretation of what the white house sort of evolved in your thinking this week? >> i feel like there is a grim joke about things becoming self-evident to the white house that were self-evident to the rest of nine a days ago. most people said, it is nine 9/11 not a situation. white house pressuring youtube to look at materials of use and take that down which google and youtube is willing not to do which is dangerous issue for freedom of speech issues. the american people know they can sing from the same hymn book that they though actually what happened last week. the president in his six minutes of rambling why he was asked why there wasn't enough security yesterday he didn't answer the questions. i think that is what people
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want to know. has enough been done to make sure this doesn't happen again? this is a very big deal. the first ambassador killed in the line of duty since 1979 and i don't feel like we're getting to the bottom exactly what happened. there was reporting of threats before this happened, of al qaeda threats. there was reporting of perhaps this being premeditated and it feels like newspaper reporters and reporters in general are ahead of the white house. i don't want to feel that way. martha: seems as if, juan, if your initial reaction to what happened was shock and horror and a desire to know what went wrong, you would withhold from saying anything until you figured out what happened on the ground but it felt the white house was very quick to jump, well, this was spontaneous. definitely the movie. it was absolutely the movie. we know what the opposite of that would be that there is trouble on the ground. that the arab spring is not evolving the way we thought it was and we're not being realistic about the threats existing on the ground? >> i think people are very realistic about the threats on the ground, what's going on in syria, the clear
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threat from iran, that continues to israel. martha: was the white house being realistic on the threat on the ground on september 4re6 vent when chris stevens, this ambassador traveled from tripoli to benghazi what with appears to be very little security around him. so my question is, give the threats already been happening in that area and he expressed his own threats about al qaeda on the rise and that he felt he was on some list of al qaeda. so i mean, did somebody drop the ball here is the very real question in terms of whether or not they're being realistic about the threat on the ground. >> well i would think that u.s. intelligence is pretty capable. the question is, the al qaeda connection and as you just pointed out, you know, when the ambassador says that he is on somebody's list, i wouldn't doubt given al qaeda's you know, persistence and terrorism that we know exists in the middle east, our ambassadors are targets. we've even seen attacks here in the united states. but that to me, the question
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is, is it fair to say that the administration hasn't done enough? or that they are unprepared? i don't see any evidence of that yet. i would hope they clearly have restructured all of their protections in the aftermath of this. if they didn't, i would be quick to, you know, criticize them. but i think right now that might be a little premature. martha: we're going to talk about that and talk about the big picture some more coming up. just the beginning of this conversation. mary katherine, thank you so much. juan good to see you as always. >> thank you, martha. gregg: after nearly four years in the whit president obama says you can not change washington from the inside. what happened to hope and change? mitt romney seizing on that. we'll explain. martha: and a prespeech debate making national headlines. should high school cheerleaders be allowed to use religious phrases on team banners. a burning question, right? >> they weren't getting fired up by kill the cougars. if we say you have power,
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martha: well, a texas judge giving a group of high school football cheerleaders the right to paint religious slogans on team banners at least for now the controversy made national headlines after the school's superintendent received complaints and told them they had to stop. but a nonprofit law firm stepped in to defend the students freedom of speech. >> it's important that we defend these students rights, of religious speech. the school district is violating the law when they're trying to prohibit that. >> you shouldn't make things like religion in school because not everybody has the same religion. martha: so that is some of the argument, right? the case is not settled yet. the judge set a hearing next month so both sides can make their arguments.
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gregg: well the number of able-bodied adults on food stamps these days has nearly doubled. that is according to a new congressional report. the number of people receiving food stamps in 2010 spiked to nearly four million compared to 1.9 million back in 2008. peter doocy is live in washington with more. peter, how did the numbers rise so very quickly? >> reporter: gregg, because typically adults who don't have any dependents can only stay on food stamps three months unless they work 20 hours a week and participate in employment training and work fare programs. but when the president signed the american recovery and reinvestment act, better known as stimulus into law in 2009, states were allowed to ignore that three-month limit for able-bodied adults who don't work 20 hours a week. for 17 months, from april 2009, to october 2010, more and more able-bodied adults stayed on food stamps in 2008 before the stimulus was signed, almost 7% of
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everyone receiving food stamps was able-bodied adult without a dependent. in 2010, they made up almost 10% of everyone on food stamps. house majority leader eric cantor said this report confirms president obama severely it abouted the welfare work requirements that americans overwhelmingly supported since the president clinton signed them into law. it is time to focus on creating job growth for those in need. despite republican objections the president's budget in 2011, 2012 and 2013 has requested further suspension of the three month time limits for folks who don't have jobs but so far none of those budgets have been signed into law. gregg: peter, why does the administration want to allow the so-called able-bodied adults to stay on food stamps? >> they say it will help the jobless and the government and here's their reasoning from the president's own 2011. quote, extending the
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american recovery and reinvestment act able-bodied adults without dependents provision will keep their access to nutritious food. they will not be subject to time constraints and. and so, basically the argument if everyone can stay on the program, then the government won't be burdened with requests from needy folks who want waivers to stay on food stamps longer than allowed. gregg? gregg: peter doocy in washington. peter, thanks. >> two former navy seals lost their lives in the attack on our consulate in benghazi but there are now some very big questions about why they were drawn into the fray in the first place. their friend and former seal mike ritland wants to know and he joins us live. gregg: plus why several gop lawmakers say that the administration's claims about the attacks in libya do not stand up to the facts. >> this notion was somehow
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the result of a youtube video is increasingly being debunked by the evidence coming in. this was a coordinated attack by well-armed terrorists. as i said i link it to radical islamic terrorists. introducing the entirely new lexus es. and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection.
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promising exactly that, hope and change in washington. now governor romney is using that line to rally his supporters. john roberts is live for us in atlanta this morning. good morning, john. >> reporter: good morning to you, martha. go ahead. martha: that is an interesting argument. >> reporter: one you will hear a lot of today. governor romney in the battleground state of nevada which president obama won 41-43 in 2008. the numbers are a lot closer. here is why. mitt romney has going for him, the housing crisis he will talk about that. a lot of unaffiliated residents a 7% mormon population and much better ground operation. however working against him, a large hispanic population, big union representation, far more registered democrats and harry reid's big political machine. the campaign is acknowledging that he not made good on his promises specifically pointing to the statement he made in the
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univision town hall. >> the most important lesson i learned you can't change washington from the inside. you can only change it from the outside. that is how i got elected and, that is how the big accomplishments like health care got done was because we mobilized the american people to speak out. >> reporter: fact is health care was mostly inside the beltway job. remember nancy pelosi saying we have to pass the bill to find out what is inside it? mitt romney will go after the president on the idea that you can't change washington from the inside in into evidence as he said yesterday in sarasota. >> the president of the united states said he can't change washington from the inside. isn't that amazing. no wonder what he had hard time over last four years. first two years he had a democrat house, democrat senate he got to do whatever the heck he wanted to. but he says i can't change from the inside. but i will get the job done. >> reporter: underscoring romney's visit to nevada. new unemployment rate
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numbers, the 12%, that is the worst in the nation. we'll see how it is today. we'll see. >> new polls out, also, john, they show president obama with pretty good showing in battle ground states. what do we know about that? >> reporter: we're talking specifically about "the wall street journal", nbc news, marist poll, showing president obama with substantial lead in wisconsin, iowa and colorado. we had pollsters take a look at that they found democrats were oversampled by the states as much as 7%, which they think martha which may have overly skewed the numbers in those states in president obama's favor. we'll see what other polls say in the coming weeks. martha: a lot about the composition of these polls and whether or not they're giving us a good read this time. it keeps things very interesting. thank you, john roberts. >> reporter: thank you, martha. gregg: back to the deadly terrorist attack on the u.s. consulate in libya. the obama administration privately briefing members of congress about the assault that killed four
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americans. afterwards, lawmakers from both parties expressing frustration and criticism. arizona senator john mccain say they are still blaming an anti-islam video for triggering attack. >> i'm stunned that they thought that it was some kind of spontaneous demonstration. but the point is that they still are blaming the video and they have a fundamental misunderstanding. they believe that it was the video. it's not the video. >> reporter: california congressman buck mckeown is republican and chairman of the house armed services committee. he took part in the briefing and joins us live this morning. congressman, thank you. senator corker emerged from the meeting. he called it useless and worthless. were you equally aggrieved when you emerged from that meeting? >> yeah. the idea, that they have been telling us for a week that there was a demonstration that spun out of control when everybody that had any, any idea what
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was really going on knew that it was a terrorist attack. it was a follow-up to 9/11. it was led by al qaeda. i mean, let's get real with this. we know we're in a war on terrorism, and the president now wants to make this a legal action. he is assigned the fbi now, total control. this is just a total joke. the president, commander-in-chief, the one person that is elected by all americans, is so busy campaigning that he can't focus on what's happening around the world. our many a ambassador and three other great americans were killed, on property that should be as sacred as in their own living room. this is just an outrage that is hard to live with. gregg: congressman, the press secretary finally admitted yesterday what was obvious it seems to most everyone. in fact he used the term, self-evident, to finally
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describe it as a terrorist attack and yet there was the president in the univision interview still blaming the videotape. in your mind does all of this confusion and contradiction call into question the competency of the obama administration? >> well i think that's self-evident. it's, in your opening segment where the president says you can't change from within, you know, his lack of leadership, the ability to really get things done, is so self-evident. he was going to change our situation around the world. he has changed it. we have less respect around the world where people feel they can attack us without any worry of retribution. then afterwards we're sending some marines to beef up some of the ema basssies yet there are some places where marines can not even
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enter the country and we're still supporting these countries. this is totally ludicrous. gregg: do you think the white house is deliberately trying to peddle a false narrative and if so, is that playing politics with national security? >> well, i think, that's also very obvious. we put it now, the fbi has total control. in fact, if they find out who did this, they have no authority to arrest somebody. it's just, we have seen this now for years where they try to act this war on terrorism is just a law, breaking the law, and dealing with it as a law matter. if you assign it to the fbi and say nobody can talk about it and off until after the election, that is what the president wants. gregg: does the obama administration, or the president himself think that the war on terror is over? or in the alternative, maybe he is concerned that americans will learn that
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under his watch the war on terror has actually regressed, we've lost ground? is that a possibility? >> you have to wonder why they would be putting out this message that it was just a demonstration that spun out of control and all of a sudden people just happened to have rpg's and mortars. if, you know, you hate to think that the president would purposely mislead the american people but it sure looks like it to me. gregg: does he need to address them directly and clear up all this confusion? he is after all commander-in-chief. >> well, yeah. if he spent some time in washington and had his briefings that are available, and maybe got his, had some cabinet meetings and did some things that a president should be doing, a commander-in-chief should be doing, rather than traveling around the money to raise money and campaign for four more years of what, yeah i
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think it would be good if he did a little bit what he is is being paid to do. gregg: buck mckeown, chairman of the armed services committee. thank you so much. >> thank you, gregg. martha: very strong words from buck mckeown and this question as well. were there real intelligence failures in the days leading up to that attack in libya? what did we know, what should we have known what was going on the ground in benghazi. we will talk to the man who prosecuted one of the world's most notorious terrorists. gregg: details on the extraordinary steps some are taking to get their hands on the latest, that's right, iphone. [ mother ] you can't leave the table
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gregg: breaking news. we're getting word now unconfirmed of a possible hostage situation inside the gateway center in pittsburgh. reports of a man on a 16th floor of 3 gateway with a gun holding hostages. this is not at all confirmed by police. gateway security guard hearing a woman on the 16th floor saying quote, don't come in here, you will get hurt. we do know that the pittsburgh s.w.a.t. team is on the scene outside of 2 and 3 gateway center. huge 1 1/2 million square foot complex of several buildings. it is a big high-rise in pittsburgh. employees at 2 and 3 have been evacuated. local sib way is shut down. we'll continue to advise as we get further details. martha: well this new reports of a security breakdown that may have happened in libya as the state department and the white house are still
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struggling to clearly explain what they know about what went wrong on the ground there the night that we lost four americans. now the obama administration has defended the levels of security that were in place at the consulate. but we have heard disagreement on that from the libyan government. this as an intelligence report links this imprisoned terrorist, the so-called blind sheikh, responsible for the 1993 bombing at the world trade center, so the initial anti-american riots in cairo, saying his followers want him released. he is serving time in prison in north carolina for the ninth three world trade center bombing. i'm joined by andrew mccarthy, the author of, spring fever, the illusion of islamic democracy. he was also the lead prosecutor in the blind sheikh case. andrew, good very you here this morning. welcome. >> martha, nice to be here. martha: what is your sort of overall take on what we're hearing from the white house and what they know and what they might not know at this point? >> with respect to the libya,
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it's mind-boggling because, if you, separate out whatever intelligence we may have had, we knew during the libya war, because the defense department made this known, that libya per capita, sent more jihadists to iraq than any other country in the world to fight against american soldiers. martha: yeah. >> and the capital of the jihad in libya is benghazi. in fact, we brought qaddafi in from the cold so to speak not only because of his abandoning the nuclear weapons program but because he was giving us valuable intelligence on jihadists in his own country. now, you know, for whatever reason we jumped in on their side in a war that, there was no provocation against the united states but we have to know this is a as dangerous a place as it gets on the planet for americans. martha: initially we were told it was about the video. then there was also reporting that, they were interested in having the blind sheikh released.
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which i think most people believe is not a possibility. but isn't all of that just sort of giving a reason to sort of an underlying current and a bigger issue here? >> yeah, you're absolutely right. you were good enough to mention my book, and that is exactly what spring fever is about. the dominant islam of this region of the world is islamic sue premise i am. in their ideology the west is perceived as the enemy. they're trying to impose sharia blasphemy standards and all other measures of sharia on the west but they're rabidly anti-american. all this stuff whether it is is blind sheikh or teddy bears or burning korans or now the movie is pretextal. it is really a trigger for something that is forming all the time there. martha: i want to talk about
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what congressman buck mckeown told us. he said the property of that consulate should be as sacred as your own living room in terms how it should be protected? do you agree with that and that there was a downfall in security there? >> there was certainly a downfall of security. we shouldn't have a installation there in the first place. it is not an installation there we can protect certainly without the amount of military people we have there. people don't want to grasp it. we're dealing with two different civilizations. in our civilization it is true that a diplomatic installation should be as sacred as your living room but they don't see it that way. and it's odd that they have to continue to defy the civilized standards of the west before we get the point that, you know, they're not following the program. martha: very interesting. andrew mccarthy, thank you. we'll talk more about this with ryan crocker in a little while. many thanks. good to have you here. gregg: all the pundits in
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campaigns say this election will be very tight heading down to the wire. well new polls out may back that up, showing a large percentage of people could still be swayed. details coming up. martha: and a new video shows the hit-and-run accident that landed lindsay lohan in jail. so will lyle low have another run in with popo? whatever that means coming back. ♪
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martha: all right. i know you've been waiting to see this, right? we're getting our first look
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at the alleged hit-and-run that landed lindsay lohan under arrest in new york city this week. you can see the actress, it is very fuzzy. but the car pulls in. this is manhattan's dream hotel which i'm sure you're probably not familiar with. there is the car as it comes in, clipping a pedestrian on the way in, according to the reports. that same pedestrian is then seen running after her car, okay? appearing to show that accident was not as severe as first reported. lohan says she is confident that this video will indeed clear her name in court, raising the eternal question, why do these people drive themselves around especially --. >> i don't get it. they're rich. martha: she could probably take a taxi. take a taxi, lindsey. gregg: look at folks there. they're high-fiving not lindsay lohan but the iphone. big day for the new iphone hoping to get hand on must-have device. some carried out or camped out i should say for more
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than a week. camped out more than a week? that is just dumb, can i say that? fox business network's robert gray is live at a apple store in new york city. he has not been there for a week. >> to. >> reporter: no. gregg: how many iphone 5s are they expected to sell? >> reporter: gregg, they sold out two million hour's time for preorders. we have 500 people on hand here, camping out in the early hours of the morning. there are more than 500. there are hundreds in line behind me. they're expected to sell at many as 10 million seems to be the number from analysts. one i've seen at bernstein research could sell 13 million by the end of this month, gregg. keep in mind, the 4s, last year's version, sold 4 million in three days. expected to top that. could hit 13 million by end of the month. gregg: real fast, can martha turn in her old iphone and upgrade for a cheap price? martha: that is what america wants to know. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely.
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there are folks out here from companies. i've been in touch with glide.com which is a peer-to-peer marketplace. you can get 260 bucks for the old one. we've seen interest triple. it is robust market. if you want to make bucks, there are folks offering to sell their new one for a thousand bucks. gregg: you have to love capitalism. martha: you have to go throughout side broker person, right. you can't walk into apple say give me my old one? gregg: i don't know. my daughter says you can turn it in for cheap price you get upgrade. martha: she would know. gregg: yeah. martha: kids are up on these things. gregg: they certainly are. martha: all right, so back to the big story of the day, pakistan making a point to a call for a peaceful day of anti-american protests but, did all of those attending get that information? look at this. it does not look like a peaceful protest. we've got a live report what is going on in pakistan.
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gregg: president obama saying change in washington can not come from the side but, isn't that what he promise to do? chris wallace on that next. jack, you're a little boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia.
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martha: fox news alert. the new middle east flash point this pour is becoming our ally, pakistan. brand-new video. take a look at this. listen to it for a moment. that is the scene in the streets of peshawar, pakistan now this as the government declares today a national poll day there in honor of the prophet mohammed. you can see how the people are celebrating that national holiday. brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in for bill hemmer who is on
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assignment. pakistan calling them peaceful demonstrations. what we are seeing is far from peaceful, angry crowds, using rocks as weapons, chanting anti-american are slogans, police opening fire. martha: i'm joined on the phone by rebecca conway this morning a reporter with grn. rebecca, describe the scene for us. >> reporter: at the moment in the capitol of islamabad it's relatively peaceful. earlier today we saw demonstrators on the street numbering around 10,000, as you said hurling rocks on the police, having teargas fired back on them approaching the diplomatic on california where the u.s. embassy and other foreign missions are based. it's the scene of five-star hotels used by tourists, and government institutions.
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we've seen very violent thins happening in the country. martha: who is proceed b protecting the embassies there? what side does the pakistani military appear to be on. >> reporter: necessity have a very visible presence, the army and the pakistani police near the enclave where the u.s. embassy is placed. we've seen shots fired, teargas used to try to push them back. it seems very much that these institutions in pakistan wanting to protect the areas, wanting to bring everything under control. martha: we just saw some pictures of one that appeared to have president obama and an american flag on it. what is the sentiment? if there is anyway to categorize the sentiment in the street and what is motivating these actions, what would it be? >> reporter: it's pretty literal
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here. the protests are against the muslims denigrating the prophet the. they seem to be getting involved in organizing these protests as well. particularly in the cities where people who have seen the video and have access to social media attend these events and the tensions here are pretty high among the crowds. martha: we've seen so many things sort of in the mix here. in egypt discussions of the blind sheik and releasing him, a loot oa lot of focus that you're sidewalking about 0 this trailer, we don't even know if it exists. you're saying the movie is one of the thins that is sort of inspiring people to rise up in the streets of pakistan.
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>> access where this video is being largely seen is blocked because of content. just hearing about something like this even if people haven't seen it is driving this kind of protest. the government here today declaring a national holiday for the love of the prophet trying to show tha people that they are very much coming out and condemning the video, the government has condemned it too. at this stage whether the people have seen it or not it's fueling fire here. martha: anti-american sentiment in the street no doubt and that has put some fuel on the fire. rebecca, thank you so much. good to have you with us today. gregg: back here in the united states family and friends saying goodbye to former navy seal tyrone woods one of the four americans killed last week during our attack on our consulate in libya.
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he was played to rest yesterday in san diego. he spent 20 years in the navy within libya work being as a private security contractor. we'll talk to a former navy seal who was good friends of tie ron woodtyrone woods and glen dori and what their role was in trying to protect the ambassador. four years after campaigning on a promise of hope and change president obama last night making what some are saying is a surprising admission of what he has learned during his time in the white house. take a listen. >> i think that i've learned some lessons over the last four years, and the most important lesson i've learned is that you can't change washington from the inside. you can only change it from the outside. that's how i got elected, and that's how the big accomplishments like healthcare got done. gregg: chris wall as anchor of
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fox news sunday joins us live. chris, good morning. while taking a swipe at congress is the president also implicitly admitting his own failure to work with congress? >> no, he's saying that congress is intractable and that you can't do it from the inside and therefore you have to have the citizen's movement that's what has elected him in the first police and that's what will make change when they elect him and elect democrats to congress in november. the problem of course is that it really is a miss reading of what happened over these last four years. the fact is that obama came in with a big majority himself, with a big majority in the house, eventually a filibuster-proof majority in the senate, and the view of the public when it came to obamacare, that wasn't because -- it didn't get passed because of great popular support
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it got passed over popular opposition when you have the tea party and the victory of scott brown in massachusetts it got passed because it was ram rodded through in tough, hard-bones politics through the reconciliation process in washington. so it is an understandable effort by him to say that we still need the citizens movement to elect him and to elect democrats but it doesn't really square with the facts. gregg: you were chief white house correspondent during the ronald reagan years an had a good relationship with tip o'neal. how would you compare this president? is he lacking in those same kind of skills. >> it's a different world. there are a couple of differences. he didn't have such a great working relationship with tip owe peel kneel. he could get swing votes, conservative, blue-doudog
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democrats to come over and support his issues. it's more polarized now. reagan was able when he would speak to the nation to get popular will and you would see the next day huge numbers of people calling and putting pressure on democrats in congress to support the reagan agenda. you don't see that with this president. it also goes back, and here is another way in which i think that the president's explanations the last four years is a real misreading is it continues this narrative it isn't his policies that the people oppose is that he hasn't given enough speeches or got even his message out enough. i don't think anybody who lived through that year-plus, when we were going through obamacare, healthcare was lack of speeches from the president. he made plenty of speeches it's just a lot of people were not buying them. i don't think it's a very accurate reading of what happened in the first team. gregg: many things.
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be sure to tune into fox news sunday. he will sitting down with campaign adviser robert gibbs. check your local listings for the time. it's on fox news sunday. martha: a landmark day today in afghanistan as the last of the 33,000 surge troops that were ordered there by president obama nearly two years ago leave the country. that leaves some 68,000 u.s. troops on the ground in afghanistan. 51 nato troops have been killed in recent months by those they were sent there to train. it is a very challenging time for the coalition forces. molly henneberg joins us live from washington. molly the defense secretary said the surge did what it needed to do. what does he mean? >> he means the troops went in, they helped with the ongoing transition from nato-led security to after fan-led security and they are out on schedule. that's what secretary leon
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panetta says. he went on in a statement to say that the last surge troops leaving afghanistan, quote, is an opportunity to recognize that the surge accomplished its objectives of reversing taliban momentum on the battlefield and dramatically increased the size and capability of the afghan national security forces. secretary panetta says the 68,000 american troops still in afghanistan remain in a quote, tough fight, and he says the full transition to afghan control will be complete by the end of 2014 when the u.s. and other in it tow allies plan to pull out the rest of the troops. martha: i mentioned in the introduction, molly that green on blue violence that we have seen so much of. the defense secretary has had a bit of a different interpretation of this. this has been difficult for our troops. >> supposedly friendly afghan army or police officers turn on their nato partners and kill them. 51 coalition troops have been killed in this way this year. as a result nay tow is stopping
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most of the once routine joint patrols between coalition forces and afghan units except in certain cases. the deputy chiefs of nato's operations says the insider attacks, quote strike right at the heart of our resolves. it's one thing to be killed in action by the insurgents,. it's quite another to be shot in the back of the head at night by your friends. defense secretary panetta has said the u.s. has quote turned the corner in afghanistan and says the u.s. commander in afghanistan, general john allen says he has the number of troops he needs to accomplish the mission of turning security over to the afghans by the end of 2014. martha: thank you very much. molly hennin tkerg in washington. gregghenneberg in washington. gregg: iran is flexing its muscles, displaying its newest defense system and issuing a warning. martha: new video coming in this
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hours, is the democracy that the administration said the arab spring would bring? a former u.s. ambassador to afghanistan and iraq joins us. gregg: and we first heard washington blaming an internet movie for the violent protest. now we are taking out ads, that's right taxpayers dollars detphoupsing th denouncing the movie's message but not a word about free speech. >> they still are pwhraeupblin blaming the video and they have a fundamental misunderstanding. they think it's the video, it's not the video, it's the islamists that are pushing this video. woman 1: this isn't just another election. we're voting for...
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gregg: updating now a breaking news story out of pittsburgh, a possible hostage situation inside the gateway center there at the hirise complex of buildings. apparently this began shortly
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after 8am with a report of a man with a gun taking a female hostage. they warned coworkers of a dangerous man in the building trying to rob her. the s.w.a.t. team is on thescen. two and three gateway center have been evacuated of all employees, and negotiations, again are underway. as we get further details of what is happening inside we'll relay them to you. martha: the obama administration has compared the overthrow of the dictators in the arab spring last year to the fall of the berlin wall, suggesting that it would usher in a new era of democracy that they were inspired by the freedom seekers that they saw on the ground during that time. but with the turmoil that we are now seeing in these videos sweeping across the middle east this week some are saying that that a tphol gee may be pretty far tpof. some are saying that this is more like a repeat of the 1979
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revolution in teheran. other comparisons are also being made. we are joined on skype by a man with vast experience in this region. ryan crocker a former ambassador to iran and iraq. thank you for being here. >> i'm glad to be here. martha: hillary clinton said during the arab spring period that we are reminded of the fall of the berlin wall and america had a lot of experience of helping to build democracies in those situations. is that analogy holding up? >> those were pretty exciting days, as you remember at tahir square. the peaceful ab today caution of hosni mubarak and also in tunisia. the arab spring can reap some
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very bitter fruit as we can see. i am not ruling out democracy in these countries but it is not going to be an easy battle. martha: the next question becomes, if this is as you say, perhaps, and that would be a hopeful way to look at it that there is a road to democracy here, what role county u.s. play and should we be hearing more from the president, from the secretary of state in light of what is going on? [chanting] >> i think it's a great question. i think we have to be as heavily engaged as we can. i hope very much that the tragic murder of my friend, chris stevens and his colleagues doesn't lead us into a retrenchment. they need us right now to engage with them, engage with those who want to see better outcomes for their countries to encourage them to give them the benefit of our experience, including in the
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region, some of the hard experience, but we've got to be on the scene diplomatically, with our ngo's, we have to be engaged. martha: you know, i wonder what you think about the fact that we heard for a whole week basically from the administration that this was a spontaneous out pouring of emotion that was triggered by a movie, then we heard it was all about releasing the blind sheik, and as i just -- i spoke to another guest earlier, andrew mccarthy, does that do a disservice to the american people to explain it that way and to not say that there is an underlying current here that causes great concern? >> simplistic explanations about the middle east are almost always wrong. it's a very complicated area with a very complicated history. the answer, martha, i think is all of the above. there is some spontaneous outrage over the video, certainly, spread byword of
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mouth, a lot of people haven't seen it and are protesting against it anyway. but it is also clear that these demonstrations in some cases are being manipulated by highly organized, very anti-american, very sol louisiana till groups. we have to understand that as well. and we've got to work with governments in the area, with moderates in the area, with people we've come to know to get back to reality and then address it. martha: i mentioned some historical analogies coming into this. and some people say that when the shah was over thrown in iran there was hope for to people. and we know how that ended up, women barely being able to show their faces in the streets in iran, a lot of frustration that that came out the way it was. when you look at this which way does this lean, is this the abdication of the russian czar and what happened after that, it
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is hamas, which has been very problematic obviously or a better scenario? >> it can be any of those things, martha, that is why i think our engagement, our presence on the ground diplomatically is so important. to understand what is going on, each country, each society is different and to help moderates, prodemocracy elements shape events, not let them runoff on their own. it could be the russian revolution, it could be the french revolution, which after a pretty depressing start obviouslobvious turned out pretty well. martha: are you frustrated that we are not hearing more from hillary clinton and president obama? >> i think that the message we need to hear is we've got to engage here, these outcomes are not preordained, we can influence them but we've got to be there to do it. martha: thank you so much, ambassador crocker, it's always good to have you with us. >> thank you.
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gregg: president obama, secretary of state hillary clinton appearing in an ad on pakistani television. but as john mccain said this is not about a film. south carolina senator lindsey graham joins us next. look, i don't play 'bout my facial hair. if i grow this out a little bit, i look too much like an english country gent... naaah. a little this way and i feel like i'm from outer space.
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gregg: the u.s. state department taking to the airwaves in pakistan to try to tamp down rage over an anti-muslim videotape produced here on the ooh night states and posted on the internet. our embassy in islamabad spending $70,000 on a tv ad that features president obama and secretary of state hillary clinton denouncing that film. >> the united states has been a nation that respects all
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faiths. we reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. >> let me state very clearly, and i hope it is obvious that the united states government had absolutely nothing to do with this video. gregg: joining me now is south carolina senator lindsey graham. senator, nice to have you here. >> thank you. gregg: does the president appear to be apologizing to muslims for what is essentially an act of free speech without ever defending the first amendment, and doing so with taxpayer dollars? >> well, here is the way i view this. the bottom line is that most countries in the mideast, people do not believe anything major can happen without the government approval because they are tow tal tear yan societies. if a film is produce ned a country and gets distributed they just assume the government
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is involved. i don't mind the secretary of state and president obama clearly stating to the muslim world this film is not who we are and what we believe, but they should say in our society people have a right to say these things, and i'm here to say that we reject the content of this film. my problem with the obama administration and obama policies is we're leading from behind at a time we desperately need bold leadership. his foreign policy makes me long for the decisive days of jimmy carter. in 2009 when the iranian people took to the streets trying to overthrow the ayatollahs, barack obama sat on the sideline and said he didn't want to get involved because he didn't want to jeopardize his chance to work with the iranian regime. when a wonderful opportunity lost, leaving afghanistan, never talking about it. sitting on the sidelines and watching syrians get
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slaughtered. throwing israelis under the bus. this is a very weak, ill-conceived foreign policy and our problems are not the films. or problems are with our commander-in-chief. gregg: senator, speaking of iran you have a resolution that will as i understand it be voted on perhaps today that would put the u.s. senate on record as ruling out a strategy of containment with respect to iran. are you convinced that in fact that is sort of secretly the president's strategy here, containment, and that he is not being truthful when he says all options, mu including military are on the table. >> the senate should speak with one bipartisan voice rejecting a nuclear iran. the president said it we are going to make sure it doesn't happen. if they get the weapon they will share the weapon with
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terrorists, and you'll have a nuclear arms race in the mideast and israel won't work under that threat. i can't get any democratic support to speak of for the fact that what does having your back mean? president obama stood up in front of the audience and said, well we have your back. what does that mean? in my view vie if israel has to use military force against iran we will be there for him. gregg: do you think he means it when he says he will use military force. >> i don't think the iranians believe him. killing osama bin laden was a tad of success. it hasn't made us safer. john kerry said at the democratic convention, ask osama bin laden if he's better out. here is my retort ask the people serving in the middle east are
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they better off than four years ago. i've never seen our enemies more emboldened. so when yoso i would suggest what he's doing in syria, what he's done in afghanistan and his policies towards iran and israel in general make me wonder. i think the iranians look at us really don't believe they are in jeopardy of a military attack. if you listen to the obama administration the problem in the mideast is israel in the iran. gregg: thank you for speaking with us. neil cavuto will be more on the crisis, in our world, one of the biggest critics of how the obama administration has handled the situation, senator john mccain will be joining him live at 4:00 on the fox news channel. martha: serious new questions about the circumstances that cost two former seals their
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lives in libya. we will speak with a friend and fellow seal coming up next right here on "america's newsroom." [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.
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martha: we are back in "america's newsroom," this just crossing the wires. the house ethics committee has just announced that they will not charge california representative maxine waters with any ethics charges. this has been going on for years, this investigation. the suggestion was that she had tried to steer money to a bank
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that her husband owned some stock in from the stimulus money, and that apparently will go no further for representative maxine waters. more on that later. gregg: the space shuttle endeavour is getting set to continue its tour over the state of california, strapped on top of a jumbo jet as you can see the shuttle expected to take off from edwards air force base in just a few minutes from now. adam housley is live at lax airport. adam this thing is hitting all the big tourist spots in the l.a. area, right? >> reporter: it is, gregg. in fact it's supposed to take off in about half an hour to 45 minutes but it's been pushed out. it's now an hour and a half to hour 45. it will head north from the high desert, fly past the capitol in sacramento and to the bay area. the reason why they pushed it back one hour is the bay area does have some fog. they believe the fog will lift
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in time as endeavour will fly over northern california, pass by the golden gate bridge, go over san francisco, pass the silicon valley. back down the coastline to here in lax. we talked to tom and he told us how important it is to have endeavour in california. and it's really a tip of the cap to the golden state. >> it's a recognition that california's aerospace, her teenage and talent from world war ii to the present has offered us giants steps forward and i think it's a well deserved honor to have the last of the space shuttles there at california science center. >> reporter: tom jones flew two missions on endeavour. it will fly overall the main sights down here as well slug the jpl laboratory where so much important work took place to help with endeavour. it will make its final landing at 12:15 local time. it returns for the final time
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today. gregg: what a sight that is. adam housley live at lax, thanks. martha: there is a growing mystery around the two former navy seals who were killed on september 11th in benghazi. we are now learning that they were not assigned specifically to the protection of ambassador chris stevens, and that that night they were actually in a separate an annex outside benghazi. that location was apparently known to the attackers. it appears they went from the consulate over to the annex as the firefight played out than that was to be a somewhat secret locations. tragically these former seals took it upon themselves to rush in and help in a situation that they were not assigned to and they then lost their lives in that fight. we will no doubt learn more about the details of all of this. now from the beginning the administration was vague about what their role was, it took 24 hours to release the names of
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tie ron woods a glen doherty, both were navy seals with multiple tours in iraq and afghanistan, medical background as well, an amazing resume that these two men had. here is hillary clinton's initial statement followed by ambassador susan rice describing the reason that they were in libya that right, listen to this. >> four americans were killed. they included sean smith, a foreign service information management officer and our ambassador to libya, chris stevens. we are still making next of kin notification for the other two individuals. >> we obviously did have a strong security presence, and unfortunately two of the four americans who died in benghazi were will to provide security. but it obviously wasn't sufficient in the circumstances to prevent the overrun of the consulate. martha: here is part of the statement that secretary clinton
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issued a day later when she did name the seals, quote, today we also recognize the two security personnel is the way they were referred to, who died helping to protect their colleagues, our embassies could not carry on our critical work without the service and sacrifice of brave people like tyrone and glen. so with that backdrop i'm joined now by mike gritland. he was very close to glen doherty. he was also a navy seal and trained with them. thank you for being with us today. >> my pleasure, martha. thank for having me. martha: does anything disturb you about the way their service was presented and whether or not there was a suggestion that they were on that detail initially, that they were there to protect him? >> you know it's frustrating to say the least. without having all the details it's hard to get a good grasp of exactly how it went down, but the big thing that i think that
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is important on focusing on is that glen and ty both went above and beyond what was asked of them to help out in a dire situation and i think it reflects positively and accurately on the type of character that these two men had. martha: no doubt. because it appears that they jumped in to help in a situation, as i said that they were not originally designated to do. do you believe, you know, that if there was adequate protection, you know, had they been there in the role of protecting ambassador stevens that they would have had, you know, a good lay of the land, that they would have understood more about the situation and trained for it, and that things might have turned out differently? >> i mean it's impossible to say without having been there and known how exactly the whole scenario unfolded, but without a doubt if there was two guys that i would want to have, you know, transporting me around a
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country, it would be glen and ty. i'm not surprised that they volunteered and did a quick reaction-force type of movement to go help when help was needed, because that is the type of men that these two guys were, and i think -- i think it's important for the country to realize that there is a lot of people just like them who nobody knows about that are continually doing work such as that internationally. martha: that is so important for all of us to remember and to recognize, that they, you know, really gave their lives in this mission, and as we say, you know, it wasn't there original reason for being there. when you think about how this played out. as i say we are going to learn more details about it as we go forward. what we are learning so far is that ambassador stevens was in the consulate, that the firefight began there, the house was set on fire, that it then moved outside of that consulate area, and that the attackers went over to this annex, where
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glen and tyrone were, and that the fight continued to ensue there. does it sound to you like the ambassador was targeted in this situation, or that these people might have had some inside information, that they might have understood more about this property and the layout than originally understood? >> i would say based on how things unfolded it would be incredibly difficult to deny the fact that it was at least planned and that they had some inkling of what was going on, whether it's movements or locations, personnel, et cetera. things like that don't happen spontaneously especially when there are multiple locations that are fair distances apart and a lot of moving parts and a lot of people involved, so, you know, that aspect of it, it's pretty tough not to draw that conclusion. martha: interesting. i know that you spoke to glen not long ago.
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can you share anything with us about what he said to you, or what you talked about, or just anything about him that you'd like to share with us? >> sure. glen was, you know, one in a million does not do glen justice. he was one of the finest men that i've ever known, i never will know. the country is forever going to mourn the loss of him and ty. glen and i spoke not long after he departed on this last trip, and my dad works for john deer, both my folks do, and he always liked to have john deer hats. he isn't me a picture of his and it looked like it had been run over a few hundred times and he asked me if i could get him another one for when he comes home. i still did get him another one and will be getting it to his family shortly. both guys were incredible men, there is not enough time to heel
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the wounds of losing both of these guys. martha: it's obvious in your voice and what you're telling us how much you love them and will miss them. and we thank you for being with us today. we hope there are more answers to this story. thank you, mike. >> my pleasure. >> we'll be right back. ve latel. but because of business people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help.
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making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together.
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gregg: updating now that breaking news story out of pittsburg. we are now getting details from police there about a whose stage situation inside the gateway center. the latest information we have from police is that the suspect is exmilitary who used to work at a company on the 16th floor. he has taken possibly two, but definitely one hostage, the hostage believed to be a male, there could also be a female hostage as we reported earlier. no shots have been fired. negotiators with the s.w.a.t. team are on the scene, they have a visual on him. he has been identified and
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apparently they are talking with him. he is calm in his demeanor, not making any threats, but police do not know the kind of weaponry he has, and there is a threat that he had bombs, which obviously is a big concern for police, but, again, they don't know all of his weapons. they are reviewing film trying to figure out waving the man i out what if anything the man is carrying. he appeared to be looking for a specific individual. apparently walked shortly after 8:00 this morning into an investment company on the 16th floor, appeared to be looking for a specific individual. those are all the details now we're getting from police, as we get further details we'll pass them along to you. martha: all right. let's go to jon scott standing by to tell us what is coming up next at the top of the hour on "happening now." jon: it is tgif and the race for this white house is getting even hotter. this as the obama administration comes under increasing scrutiny
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over the handling of our diplomatic post in libya. plus, both president romney -- i'm sorry, president obama and mitt romney hit battle states hard as the pays picks up on the road to november. we'll show you who won the week and if the media has been fair in the race for the white house. a cyclist harassed by an suv caught on tape. we'll bring you their story. and one town's crackdown on a kid trying to do something nice for charity. all happening now at the top of the hour, martha. martha: we'll look forward to that. thank you, jon. less than two months to go, folks in the race for the white house, and it's still a tight one. supporters on both sides seemingly locked into their candidate. how many voters could still end up changing their minds? it might surprise you. new poll numbers next.
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martha: brand-new polls show that more than one fifth of registered voters say that they could still be convinced to change their minds before election day. these come from abc news, here is the first one 22% of voters define themselves as persuadable, meanwhile look at this one, this really caught my eye. 60% say that they are anxious about whether their preferred candidate could actually perform well as president, on both sides. how about that. joined now by pat caddell a pollster for president carter and chris wilson a pollster. that really strikes me. they say yes i like mitt romney or yes i like president obama but i'm a little nervous whether they can do the job. >> once in a while you get a new question on a poll that is interesting and helps illuminate something. this is really important.
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i believe that, you know, this notion that there are only a handful of people that everybody is looked into their positions is ludicrous. that's what people who don't know anything about voters think. voters move all over the place. some people are undecided today, move tomorrow to support softly or hard, whatever. this is what is -- what is important are is that we have a fifth of the voters that are movable. look, even if half of them are movable there is only half really that are truly movable, that is important. but 60%. when you see people saying that they are anxious it makes things like the news story today we had of what's happened in the middle east, if i were president obama that's what would make me very nervous and governor romney as well. martha: chris, let's put up this one last number while we can which goes to the issue of how many people out there could possibly change their mind. the way that abc poll put this. is are you interested in finding out more about the candidate. 32% of voters said about that.
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that led abc to the fact that that leads to the one tpeupt of fifth of the people. >> this is driven by a socio-economic status issue. you have a majority of blue collar middle class voters, ad waited community organizers on one side and an investment banker in the 0. it feels voters with someone who they don't believe hrepts who they are or what they stand for. it's driven by socio-economic status. and it's that same status if you look at again the middle class voters as the highest predicter, lower education, lower economic status, is the highest predicter for persuade built. it's the same tie nam i can that gave us the tea party if you look at it. it gave us the tea party movement in 2010. where the majority of tea party
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voters may be republican there are a good enough number of them that are independents, they are still undecided, they've already rejected obama but they haven't really accepted mitt romney yet because they don't know if he represents them. martha: it taps also into a lot of anxiety in the country. i hear a lot of people say they don't like the ads, the discussion really that things are focused on right now and they are just not sure of that so it leaves a lot open. i've got to go. we have to leave there. super quick. >> i'm going to say you're exactly right. martha: you can say that. >> people are worried about the future going and the election doesn't seem to be relevant to them in many ways, that's why they are anxious. martha: that's right too. nice to see you. many thanks for being here. gregg: i always say martha is right. that's the smart thing to do. martha: gregg: demonstrations spreading across the region, a live report coming up next. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare?
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